The present invention relates to a tool or tool holder, particularly for use with a machining system provided with numerical control. More particularly, the invention relates to an information data carrier provided on a tool or a tool holder for carrying data of specific characteristics of the tool, such as its length, diameter, service life and other parameters.
Automatic machining systems with numerical control are normally provided with data carriers carrying data of specific characteristics of the tools and tool holders utilized in the system, which data carriers are in form of bar coding made on sticky labels which are glued to the tool holder. In order to transmit coded data to the control of the metal-cutting system this bar coding is usually scanned with an optical laser which feeds these data to the machine control. This type of the data carrier and data processing has however, some disadvantages. Optical lasers required in the above described data processing are susceptible not only to mechanical loads but also to contamination. Furthermore, there is always a danger with conventional devices that a label would be also either contaminated or lost, which often happens particularly because the machine is lubricated with oil. A further disadvantage of known data carriers is that in the case of wear-off the tool printed bars on the labels can not be seen and it would be unclear to an operator whether the tool is a newly adjusted and received from a test station or it has been used and removed from the spindle. It is known that after each operation process the tool should be removed from the spindle for reasons of safety, and under such conditions a label with printed bars thereon can be easily lost and a new label with actual data in form of bar coding should be glued to the tool. These manipulations, however are expensive. Furthermore, remaining glue layers contaminate the tool or tool holder.